It is conventional for spinning spoons to comprise the following:
a shaft, having a fish hook, generally a triple fish hook, at one end thereof and fitted with an eye at its opposite end for fixing to a fishing line, e.g. a polyamide thread or a steel cable;
a blade; and
a swivel close to said eye for connecting one end of said blade to said shaft.
Thus, under the effect of the resistance of the water through which the spoon is moving, said blade spins about said shaft.
The vibrations given off by the blade spinning about the shaft are detected by the sensitive lateral line of carnivorous fish and it is these vibrations rather than the appearance of the spoon that incite carnivorous fish to bite and be caught on the hook.
In a first prior embodiment, the shaft is constituted by a simple rod, e.g. piano wire having a diameter of a few tenths of a millimeter. The shaft is thus light in weight and as a result the blade, particularly if it is elongate, spins rapidly close to the shaft and uniformly about said shaft. The vibrations emitted are thus regular and it has been observed that they are relatively less attractive to carnivorous fish than vibrations which are more irregular.
In a second prior embodiment, the shaft is leaded such that said shaft constitutes an elongate axial mass. The inertia of this axial mass provides a small amount of opposite to rotation of the blade, thus making it flap to some extent, and under such circumstances the emitted vibrations are more irregular, and thus more attractive to carnivorous fish than vibrations emitted by spoons having a lightweight shaft.
In both of these embodiments, the shaft is rigid and this gives rise to the drawback of allowing a carnivorous fish that has attacked the spoon to bear against the shaft to get itself off the hook. In the context of a lightweight shaft, a proposal has already been made to remedy this drawback (see French patents FR-A-955 183 and FR-A-1 035 843, for example) by replacing said rod with a flexible connection. In this case it becomes impossible for the carnivorous fish to bear against the shaft in an attempt to get off the hook.
An object of the present invention is to provide a spoon that avoids the vibrations due to regular rotation which are relatively unattractive, while eliminating the drawback of a rigid shaft.